Barcode standards FAQs

Barcode number re-sellers are companies that have bought barcode numbers off other companies and then try to on-sell the numbers.

GS1 has no relationship with these re-sellers, so we can't provide guaranteed information about whether the re-sellers are trying to sell you legitimate, authorised numbers.

We can't know if the barcode numbers they provide are unique against other numbers directly allocated by a GS1 organisation. Also we can't validate these numbers for eCommerce, as we have no means of tracing who the numbers have been assigned to. 

If you buy barcode numbers from a re-seller you do so at your own risk. While all GS1 barcode numbers are legitimate when first created, as soon as a re-seller buys a number and on-sells it to you, that number is no longer managed by GS1. This means there is no guarantee that the number will remain unique - which can have significant consequences within the supply chain, particularly in labelling and track and trace.

You can get unique, authorised GS1 barcode numbers from any GS1 member organisation around the world. If you're in Australia, you can get barcode numbers from GS1 Australia. First, you'll need to join GS1.

Each GS1 organisation provides GS1 standards and associated services - including GS1 Company Prefixes and GS1 Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs or barcode numbers) - to ensure that every one of the millions of barcode numbers in use around the world is unique.